| Law enforcement and cyber defenders are sounding alarms about the possibility of digital attacks from Russia or elsewhere hitting the Summer Olympics kicking off this weekend in Tokyo. The FBI this week alerted about the possibility of such an attack, warning that hackers could disrupt live broadcasts, knock ticketing and other digital systems offline, steal and release athletes' and teams' personal data or even lock up critical Olympics tech and hold it for ransom. The warning comes after Russian hackers targeted the past two Olympic Games, seemingly in retaliation after the International Olympic Committee barred Russian athletes from competing under their country's flag after a humiliating doping investigation. Russian military hackers were doing reconnaissance in preparation for a possible cyberattack against the Tokyo Olympics before the games were postponed by the pandemic, the United Kingdom's top cyber agency has said. But there's no evidence so far they resumed that work when the games were rescheduled. A significant hack against the Olympics could be a major blow to one of the first truly global events since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic. But that also makes it a prime target. "In 2021, the Tokyo Summer Olympics may shape up to be what covid-19 PPE and vaccine diplomacy was to 2020: a clear opportunity for nation states to deploy information campaigns to denigrate their adversaries, promote their system of governance, and burnish their image on the world stage," Rachel Chernaskey, Max Glicker and Clint Watts wrote for the German Marshall Fund's Alliance for Securing Democracy. If the attack came from Moscow it would also ratchet up cyber hostilities between the White House and the Kremlin, which are already at a high boil over criminal ransomware attacks. "I think there's an even chance," John Hultquist, director of threat intelligence at the cybersecurity company FireEye told NBC News's Kevin Collier about the prospects for a Russian Olympics hack. "They've done it in the past … Circumstances are all the same as far as Russian athletes not being allowed to compete, and we know they were prepping for it."  The Olympic Rings at sunset, ahead of the official opening of the Tokyo Games (Kai Pfaffenbach/Reuters) | Russia's hacks targeting the 2016 and 2018 Olympics were especially brazen. The cyberattack on the 2018 Olympics in PyeongChang, South Korea nearly upended the opening ceremonies, knocked out WiFi for chunks of the stadium and shut down security gates, as Andy Greenberg detailed in an expose for Wired. The Kremlin hackers also tried to disguise themselves by tossing in bits of computer code and tradecraft designed to make investigators blame China or North Korea. The ruse proved unsuccessful and the hacking effort was listed among a slew of charges in indictments the U.S. Justice Department brought against six Russian intelligence officers last year. Kremlin efforts to undermine the 2016 Games in Rio de Janeiro included hacking and releasing information about athletes and anti-doping organizations. That also led to U.S. indictments for the hackers involved. "Some of [Russia's] most brazen and impactful interventions have come after softer infrastructure," Ciaran Martin, former head of the U.K.'s National Cyber Security Centre, told Collier. "Politics, sports, undermining confidence and enjoyment in some of the things that are the fabric of the West, the nonauthoritarian world. Sport fits into that."  Visitors outside the Japan Olympic Museum in Tokyo. (Noriko Hayashi/Bloomberg News) | The FBI is warning organizations involved in this year's Games to be on alert. It's urging the organizations to make sure all their cyber protections are up to date and that they have fallback plans ready if a cyberattack happens. A Japanese security firm spotted malicious software that appeared to target people based in Japan and concerned about Olympics security, The Record's Catalin Cimpanu reported. It's not clear, however, if it was aimed at undermining the Games themselves. The malware was hidden in an email PDF link that warned about Olympics cyberattacks. It would have been capable of erasing files on the targeted computer if someone clicked the link. | Share The Cybersecurity 202 |  |  |  | | | 
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